July 22, 2008

Myers Briggs & EQi

I just had a meeting with someone regarding my personality testing for the Carlson program. It’s fun to take a look at the different traits that are used to describe all of our personalities.
As for the tests, they played out essentially as expected. Today, I’ll focus on the Myers Briggs assessment and what it means, if I have time I’ll touch on some EQi stuff another day. I know I spoke a lot about the value of these tests, or lack thereof, but for what it’s worth, they seem pretty well aligned to my self perception.

Personality types are measured by the MBTI instrument, which measures the following (with my results in parentheses) and a quick explanation:

1. Extraversion/Introversion : (Extroversion). This refers to where a person focuses their attention. This is pretty self explanatory.

2. Sensing/iNtuition: (iNtuition). “Sensers” rely on their surroundings and perception of the physical world whereas intuition is more focused on imagination and thinking of what the future could hold.

3. Thinking/Feeling: (Thinking). Thinkers generally make decisions on logic based ideas while feelers generally make decisions on values, instincts and people centric concerns.

4. Judging/Perceiving: (Judging). Judging is more so a planned and orderly outlook, perceivers enjoy being spontaneous and flexible.

So from these factors, my personality is thrown into the ENTJ bucket. Here’s a description of the ENTJ personalities. Now for those of you who know or have worked with me, this is EXTREMELY representative of my thought process and behavior. Almost eerily so. That’s fantabuloid, but I want to know how to get better. And from what my initial questions were answered, it seems that awareness and transparency are the next steps. Using terminology such as “I feel like” and open forums for describing your decision making are good ideas for acknowledging and garnering acceptance for those patterns.

The second test I took was an EQ testing. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months describing EQ (click on the EQ category to the right) so let’s just get to it. I scored pretty well. The score range is 0-150 in the major areas, 100 being average.

My scores in Intrapersonal EQ, Interpersonal EQ, Adaptability EQ, General Mood EQ were all over 110. That’s good, I think. The one area where I was lower was Stress Management EQ, which was a 103. Still above average, but because of the disparity between that and my other areas, it’s something to watch.

Is this information a very great indicator of my leadership ability? Well I hope so. But I think it’s more in the action and the work than in the predictions. Little is more abundant than wasted talent.

There is also a new program at Carlson called the Leadership Fellows, which is a group of seminars and mentoring group that looks like a phenomenal opportunity. I’ll certainly be joining.